


Bunker Days

by jeychen5



Series: Riding the Waves [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 20:44:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeychen5/pseuds/jeychen5
Summary: There was never a boring day in Bunker Nine with the repair boy extraordinaire. A collection of short stories involving my OC Kai and Leo Valdez. Takes place after Lost Relics.





	1. Oddly. Weird.

There had to be a name for what was wrong with me. 

Seriously, whenever I spent time in Bunker Nine, the butterflies in my stomach started to rebel. Maybe there was something wrong in the cave like some magical contraption was sending out weird vibes (like that from the spacecraft in the Tommyknockers), or all the old dust that still lingered around was affecting me, making my heart go all whacky. 

_Sure. Believe that if you want._

I wondered if Leo felt the same way, so I asked him during one of our lessons. 

He looked at me funny, and raised a confused brow in an adorable way, oddly. I noticed the grease stains on his face and clothes and thought to myself that he looked kinda attractive like that, all dirtied up and messy. Oddly. 

Leo's voice broke me out of the daze. "Helloooo? Earth to Kai." 

He knocked on my forehead like it was a door. 

I blinked. "Sorry bout that, I zoned out. What did you say?" 

He rolled his eyes. “I said that I felt fine. You're probably just weird.” 

I hit his arm playfully. “Whatever, Leo.” 

"Hey, you brought it up." 

I went back to reading to Leo as worked on some complicated machiney thing (I called it the flux capacitor. Leo hated it when I called it that). I'd glance up at him every now and then to watch him work. Leo would almost catch me looking at him and I would quickly look back down and continue to read. 

I felt a blush creep up onto my face again. Maybe I _was_ just weird. 

Yeah, that made sense.


	2. Gratuitous Spanish

Leo had this habit of speaking Spanish whenever he got irritated. 

He would mutter to himself in Spanish whenever a piece of the Argo II he wasn’t turning out the way he wanted. Sometimes he’d whack a piece of machinery with a hammer and yell at it in the foreign language (probably calling it all sorts of mean names). Leo would often speak in Spanglish if he was trying to explain to me how some mechanical thingamajig worked—though to be fair, his technobabble was just as coherent to me as Spanish was. 

And I won’t lie… it was kinda hot. 

Don’t judge me. 

“Seriously dude,” I said one day. “What are you saying that _needs_ to be censored from me?” 

At first he looked confused. Then it seemed to dawn on him that he was mumbling in Spanish. 

“Oh, that?” he said. “I just slip into Spanish sometimes. My mom…” a shadow fell across his face. “She used to do the same thing.” 

I knew what happened to Leo’s mom. Well, half of the story. He told me that she died when a building collapsed, but I got the feeling that that wasn’t the full story. I wasn’t going to press him for details. 

“That’s cool,” I said. “That you know another language, I mean. Everyone at camp can speak Ancient Greek, so I don’t think that counts. And all I know is a little bit of German.” 

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Really? Like what?” 

“Uh, cuss words.” 

He just looked at me. “You went through the trouble of learning German just so you can swear?” 

I raised my hands defensively. “I needed to. Have you ever had your mouth washed out with soap?” 

Leo shivered. “Understood. So if you say something to me in German, I should always be offended?” 

I smirked. “Only if I call you an _Arschloch_.” 

“A what now?” 

“An asshat.” 

“Oh,” Leo said. “Of course. But why would you want to swear in German?” 

“My dad’s parents are German.” 

Leo frowned. “I thought Poseidon was your dad. Unless Greek myths get a whole lot weirder than I thought.” 

“Well, Poseidon _is_ my father, but my dad is also my father. I have two fathers, somehow. It’s complicated.” 

“How do you have—” 

“I try not to think about it too much, it still gives me a headache. So you gonna teach me any Spanish cuss words or what?” 

“What?” 

I laughed. “C’mon, it’ll be fun! I can tell you how to swear in German, and you can tell me what _puta_ means.” 

Leo face palmed himself. “I’m going to forget about this conversation and just get back to work.” 

“Seriously!” I whined. “What does it mean?”


	3. Insecticide

_Tap tap tap._

I looked up at the source of the tapping and gritted my teeth. He was doing it again. 

By “it” I meant Leo absentmindedly tapping his finger on the table. He usually did this, and at first I didn't mind. It was part of his ADHD. Most demigods had it—it was a part of our battle reflexes, and Leo had ADHD on steroids. 

But after a while it was starting to get really, _really_ irritating. 

I tried to ignore it and looked back down at my Polaroid pictures. I was documenting the building progress of the Argo II. It was really coming along; the skeletal frame of the ship was all laid out and the engine was complete. It was hard to believe that it’s only been about a month since Leo and his siblings first started to build it. 

The first picture was of Leo holding the heavy head of Festus in front of the engine of the Argo II. Grease was smeared across his face and clothes. Another picture was of the rest of cabin nine working together to build the keel, another one of Nyssa rolling her eyes at the camera as Harley gave her bunny ears. Mixed in were goofier pictures of us messing around and making silly faces. My favorite was of me and Leo making stupid faces into the camera. I taped that picture to the wall by my bunk along with other pictures of my friends and family. 

Old rock music was playing in the background; an old Journey song that I vaguely knew. On most days, Leo played music whenever he was working; The Rolling Stones, Queen, and a bunch of other old rock bands that my Aunt Lisa liked to listen to. Leo told me that his mom used to listen to this music when she worked at a shop back when he was a little kid. I could relate. I had my grandfather’s old Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (good luck pronouncing _that_ ) CDs in my music collection. 

I gotta admit, I liked the music Leo played, but I’d enjoy it a lot more if Leo would just stop the _friggin’ tapping_. 

Leo tapped so often that I was starting to notice a pattern. It wasn’t to the tune of the song that was playing, and as far as I could tell it wasn’t to any song I recognized. 

I was just about to tell him to knock it off when— 

_CRASH!_

Leo froze and looked up from his blueprints. “What the—” 

“C’mon.” I drew my sword and headed towards the direction of the crash. Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool belt and followed. 

I was sure (like a full seventy-four percent) that whoever—or whatever—had caused the crash was an intruder that had no business being in here. Leo was the only one who was able to get in, so he installed a doorbell on the outside of the cave that played the beginning of that pina colada song, which was pretty neat until two certain sons of Hermes decided to ding-dong ditch the bunker one too many times. 

We made our way to the sound of the crash. One of the work tables had fallen over, scattering the contents on top. To the left there was a hole was in the floor, put there by something that dug its way up through the ground. 

Then I saw the cause of the crash. An ant the size of a Great Dane was carrying the metal head of Festus the dragon in its mandibles towards the hole. 

The monster noticed us and tried to scramble back towards its hole. Leo blocked it’s path and brought down his hammer over the ant’s massive head, but I could tell that he was holding back so he didn’t damage Festus. I ran my sword through the ant’s thorax and it disintegrating into yellow sand on the bunker floor. 

I grimaced. “That will never not be gross.” 

Leo stared at the remains, bewildered. “What the heck was that?” 

“A Myrmeke,” I said distastefully. “They’re nasty business. They like jewels and precious metals. Oh, and they spit acid.” 

“Acid spitting giant ants? That’s nice.” Leo picked up the dragon head and inspected it for any damage. When he didn’t find any, he said, “Well, that’s one problem solved. Now, what should we do with the monster, uh, remains? It’ll reform eventually.” 

I looked back down at the pile of dust. The sand started wiggling around in an attempt to reform. I ground my foot into the pile. 

“I guess… I guess we could always send it back down the hole. Does your fanny pack have a shovel in it?” 

Leo rolled his eyes. “It’s a tool belt. That’s like the exact opposite of a fanny pack.” 

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a small shovel with floral designs on the handle. Perfect for gardening, but not for shoveling monster dust. 

I stared at the cutesy shovel incredulously, then back at Leo. 

He raised his hands defensively. “Hey, don’t blame me.” 

“I won’t. But your fanny pack is a troll.” 

Leo started to fix the mess that the Myrmeke made, while I scooped monster sand back into the hole. It felt kinda strange cleaning up after a fight. I’ve fought monsters in the past, but I never had to do clean up duty. 

I finished packing the rest of the dirt back into the hole and went to help Leo with the mess. We talked and Leo joked around, making me laugh. The two of us finished up just as the horn blew for dinner. 

~*~ 

The next day, I headed to Bunker Nine, book in hand. I looked forward to today; the rest of cabin nine was going to be in the bunker, though I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t going to be alone with Leo. No need to read into that. 

As I got closer, I heard noise coming from the direction of the bunker, which was weird since the bunker was soundproof and usually closed. The closer I got, the more I could distinguish what the noise was. It wasn’t just music…it was the sound of combat. 

I dropped my book and started to run. I came through the clearing and reached the limestone cliff. 

Bunker Nine was under attack. 

Dozens of Myrmekes were swarming the bunker as “Honky Tonk Woman” blared from above. Cabin nine was doing their best to fend off the monsters (thankfully they all had their weapons. You weren’t supposed to go into the woods unarmed.), but as soon as one was killed, two more would appear in its place. Eventually, we were going to get overrun. 

I jumped into action—slicing ants as quickly as I could before they knew what hit them. As I fought, I noticed that the ants were trying to advance toward a single area, like they were after something… 

Then it clicked. Of course! They wanted Festus. 

I quickly looked around the bunker, and through the combat, I spotted Leo defending the head of Festus that sat on one of the few tables that weren’t overturned. He held what looked like a joystick; he’d move the handle, and a crane arm that I hadn’t seen before would swing down and smash ants into piles of dust. Occasionally, Leo would shoot flames from his hands if any ants manage to get too close to him. 

He was holding out pretty well until I saw that one Myrmeke managed to sneak up on him from behind. It coiled back and I knew what it was going to do. 

I ran and kicked the Myrmeke in the head and chopped it in half. My foot started to tingle and I noticed that acid was eating away at my shoe. I chucked it (along with my sock) off and flung it at another ant. Leo promptly turned it to dust with the arm of the crane. 

“Thanks!” he yelled over the chaos. 

A Myrmeke lunged at me with its pincers. I blocked its attack, silently cursing myself for not bringing my shield. “I think they want Festus!” I pushed against the monster and ran it through with my sword. 

“Yeah, I kind of figured that.” The crane arm swooped in front of us and took out a group of Myrmekes that were advancing on us. 

Another Myrmeke shot a spray of acid at me. I was a second to slow. The acid hit me in the sword shoulder. Hot white pain erupted in my arm. I yelped and nearly collapsed. 

“Kai!” Leo shot fired at the Myrmeke that hit me. 

I forced myself to regain my posture and held the sword with both hands to keep steady, but every little movement shot pain through my arm and sent black spot dancing in my vision. I didn’t dare look at the damage the acid was doing to my skin. I cursed myself for being so stupid and allowing myself to get hit by the stupid ant. 

“I have an idea,” Leo said. 

“Ideas are good,” I said, trying to ignore the searing pain in my shoulder. 

“Here’s what we do…” 

~*~ 

Forget what I said earlier. Not all ideas are good. 

Funny, you’d think I’d know that by now… 

The plan was this: lead the Myrmekes away from the bunker long enough for Leo and his siblings to build some makeshift, acid proof, mechanical thing-a-ma-jing to capture the Myrmekes all at once. In about five minutes, run to the top of Zeus’s Fist and strand all the ants at the top. I didn’t understand exactly what Leo was planning to do, but he had that gleam in his eye that he got whenever he had a crazy idea. I learned not to question it. 

I grabbed the heavy-as-all-Hades metal head of Festus and swore up a storm as the pain flared in my wounded shoulder. I blinked away the black spots and whistled like I was trying to catch a cab. It worked a little too well. They all turned towards me in an instant and noticed Festus in my arms. 

I dashed out of the bunker as fast as I could before they could swarm me. I heard a rumbling noise that probably meant that a horde of giant, murderous, acid-puking ants were after me. Hurray. 

I ran along the creek, just in case I had to stop and fight. I was pretty good at manipulating the water, but I had no clue if I could take out nearly twenty killer ants if I had to, especially with the pain in my left arm. 

I was having trouble finding a speed that was fast enough to keep a good distance away from the Myrmekes, but slow enough that they never lost me. On top of that, it wasn’t easy running _and_ carrying a gajillion pound hunk of metal that kept getting heavier and heavier with your shoulder screaming in pain. But Leo and his siblings were counting on me to keep them busy. So I kept running. 

I zipped through the trees, hopping over logs and startling a few Dryads. I backtracked a couple of times. By sheer dumb luck, I wasn’t over run by the ants. Once in a while, I’d slow down to taunt the ants with Festus’s head so I wouldn’t lose their attention. I even chucked my other shoe into the crowd, working them into a bigger frenzy. I was pretty good at pissing off people as well as monsters. 

The five minutes felt like five hundred hours. I ran towards Zeus’s Fist and burst into the clearing. 

It was totally silent for an eerie moment. I heard stories about the Battle of the Labyrinth. A lot of demigods were killed here. No one even came through here, even though placing the flag on the rocks was a pretty smart strategic move for Capture the Flag. 

I shook away those thoughts and sprinted towards the hill. Climbing was a nightmare when you have to carry something that weighs almost as much as I did. I had to perch Festus’s head on small ledges to hoist myself up at times and prayed that he didn’t fall. 

I looked towards the woods just in time to see the Myrmekes flood out with newfound rage. 

I cursed in ancient Greek and looked around frantically for any sign of Leo and the others, but they were nowhere to be seen. 

The Myrmekes were climbing up the rocks now, clicking their mandibles and staring at me with black beady eyes. 

“Come on, guys…” I muttered. 

The Myrmekes kept advancing up the boulder. 

Just then there was a rustle from the woods, and Leo and the others emerged from the trees. His siblings still had their weapons, while Leo was carrying something that looked like a steampunk nerf gun. We locked eyes and he mouthed _not yet._ I nodded. 

Cabin nine crept closer, trying not to get noticed by the Myrmekes. I dangled the head of Festus in front of me and taunted the ants to keep their attention. I scooted closer to the edge. 

I looked back at Leo for a sign. He mouthed _go!_

Without hesitating, I grabbed Festus and leapt off of Zeus’s Fist. Now you might be wondering how I can do that so casually, but I’ve been flung out of the ocean (long story) and have fallen off of the climbing wall at camp more than once. This was nothing. 

As I tucked and rolled, I heard a _whoosh_ overhead. A second later, something landed in front of me: a large black mesh bag that was wriggling around. 

I jumped to my feet and backed away in disgust. 

Leo was the first one around the boulders. He looked at the black bag of wriggling ants and grinned in satisfaction. 

I smiled weakly at the others. “Well, that… wasn’t fun.” 

There was no argument there. 

~*~ 

One Irish message later, the Hecate cabin was over to Bunker Nine to put a protective spell to keep the Myrmekes from coming back. Will and his siblings also came by to fix up the wounded. While bandaging my shoulder, Will gave me a “seriously? You’re hurt again?” look. I countered that at least I kept getting hurt in different ways, but he just shook his head. 

“The spell shouldn’t take too long,” Lou Ellen said explained to Leo as. “We have enough magic for the protective spell at the moment, but not enough to clean up… all this.” 

She motioned around the bunker, which was a complete mess. Tables and equipment were knocked down. Blueprints and tools littered the floor. There were multiple holes in the ground that the ants tunneled through. The rest of cabin nine was busy trying to clean up all the damage. 

Lou grimaced. “It wouldn’t be a problem if _some people_ hadn’t been manipulating the wind to flip skirts.” She shot a pointed look towards her siblings; some feigned innocents. 

Will scoffed, but I can tell that he was trying hard not to laugh. 

Leo surveyed the damage. For a moment, he looked a few years older with a frown and a few worry lines forming around his mouth. “This is going to set us back, cleaning up this mess.”He started muttering to himself in Spanish; no doubt swearing at the ants (swears he still hasn’t taught me, by the way). 

“We can fix up the bunker,” I said, trying to cheer him up. “The important thing is that you’re okay.” I felt my cheeks start to burn. “And everyone else. And the ship. And Festus, of course.” 

Leo nodded absently and went back to inspect the damage. Lou Ellen was making kissy faces to me behind Leo’s back, but when he turned, she stopped and started whistling innocuously. Real subtle. Like an acid shot to the shoulder. 

With everyone’s help, we were able to clean up at least part of the mess that was caused by the fight before dinner. The Mass Hall was buzzing with talk about what happened at Bunker Nine, but the hype had died down by the time it was time for the campfire sing-a-long. 

I munched on s’mores, too exhausted to obnoxiously sing about my grandma suiting up for mortal combat. I just wanted to enjoy a moment of peace. 

Leo was anything but quiet; he relayed the incident to Jason and Piper, who were concerned but didn’t seem all that surprised for whatever reason. 

I exhaled and enjoyed the warmth that was filling up inside of me. I noticed that my feet were particularly warm. I looked down and my bare feet. I’d forgotten that my mismatched converses were destroyed. 

I playfully nudged Leo in the arm. “Dude. You owe me a new pair of shoes.”


	4. Contrived Comedy

It should have been another typical day. It _was_ a first. 

I was heading to Bunker Nine to see Leo, as usual. I was carrying the usual thing: a book, a bag of Cheeto Puffs, and a couple of Cokes. Outside food was against the rules, but I knew a kid in the Hermes cabin who could sneak all sorts of stuff in for a couple of golden drachmas. 

When I got to Bunker Nine, I saw that Leo was in the lit forge cleaning it out, his entire body was engulfed in flames. Just an average Tuesday in the life of Leo Valdez. 

"Howzit Leo?" I yelled, hoping to be heard over the roar of the flames. "I hope you like Cheetos cause–AAAAH!” 

The fire around Leo had died out, revealing him to be only in his boxers shorts (that I may or may not have gotten a good look of). 

I cupped my hands over my eyes, and everything in my arms spilled onto the floor. A coke exploded and started to spray all over the place. "Dude!" 

Leo didn't seem to notice. "What's wrong with–" 

“Y-your clothes!” 

I imagined the confused look on Leo's face before he figured out he was almost naked. He swore in Spanish, and I heard a series of drawers opening. 

"I thought you said that your clothes were flameproof!" I said. 

"Usually they are!" Leo insisted. "If I focus on them being flameproof.” 

My cheeks were burning. After an eternity, I asked, “Is it safe to look up now?” 

He groaned. “Yes.” 

Slowly, I looked at him. Leo had a blue work apron on that was three sizes too big for him. 

Y’know, it would’ve been hilarious if it weren’t so embarrassing. 

“Kai,” Leo said. “I need you to go to my cabin and get me some new clothes.” 

“You want me to just waltz right into cabin nine and rummage through your drawers?" My face heated up even more. "No, wait! I didn’t mean your _drawers_ drawers. I meant—” 

“Just talk to Nyssa. She'll understand. I hope.” 

Of course. Just ask Nyssa. I would have thought of that simple plan easily if not for the fact that the image Leo in his underwear was permanently seared into my brain. 

Although, not a bad image to have... 

_Pervert._

Bite me. 

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be right back. You just stay here.” 

Leo gave me a funny look. “Trust me. I'm not going anywhere.” 

~*~ 

Compared to what happened earlier in Bunker Nine, asking Nyssa to get some of Leo’s clothes from cabin nine wasn’t so bad. The look she gave me was puzzled, to say the least. Nyssa knew about my crush on Leo, so I had to reassure her that I wasn’t building some weird shrine to him in my cabin, a la Helga Pataki. 

I picked out the clothes that were sitting at the top. I couldn’t find a belt so I grabbed some suspenders that were sitting next to his socks. Thank the gods I didn’t have to pick out his underwear, too. I decided to grab an extra shirt and pair of pants just in case this ever happened again. 

Back in Bunker Nine, Leo changed back into clothes and I clean the spilled coke. I let Leo have the last one even though it was a little dented, but I figured he’d be thirsty after spending all that time in the forges. 

When we finished, we just sat across from each other at the work table in silence, eating Cheeto Puffs and avoiding eye contact. You would’ve needed a magic sword to cut through the awkward tension that hung in the air. 

“You can look me in the eye again,” I said, breaking the silence. 

“I was just about to say the same thing to you.” 

I sighed. “Look, Leo. You don't have to be embarrassed. Y'know… the same thing happened to me once.” 

Leo nearly choked on his coke. “Seriously?” 

I flushed. “Yeah, only I was in a bath towel and wearing so much make-up even hooker clowns would say that it was excessive. Plus I was in front of _way_ more people, like a quarter of the camp.” 

He snorted. “How on earth did that happen?” 

“It's not important.” 

“Hold on. You can’t bring that up and _not_ explain.” 

“ _The point_ is that we should just forget about this and never speak of this again,” I said. “Like ever.” 

“I second that.” 

A moment of silence past again until I said, “But I gotta ask... Charazard print? Really?" 

Leo tossed the bag of Cheetos at my face. “Shut up, Fischer.”


	5. To Crash and Burn

Today was the day. One way or another, everything would be different after this. 

I stayed up all night writing my personal thoughts and feelings to Leo. I got everything off of my chest and poured my soul out to him in this letter. I even tried to make my handwriting legible, which I’ll have you know was no easy task. I gathered all of my confidence and courage, and I decided to give Leo this letter. 

Midday, Leo and I were in Bunker Nine. I read him _The Odyssey_ while he worked on the dubstep soundboard for the Argo II. Why did a warship need a dubstep soundboard? It didn't. Leo and I were joking around one day when his light bulb went off and he decided to build one as one of the ship’s controls. I'll give Leo this: once he had an idea, he was determined to see it through to fruition. He was determined. It was one of the things I admired about him. 

Anyway, I stopped at the part where Odysseus got stranded on Calypso's Island when I decided it was now or never. 

I folded the note into a perfectly constructed paper airplane and sailed it towards Leo head. 

"Heads up!" I said. 

Leo snapped out of his work in time to see the plane flying towards his face. He grabbed at the note with a fiery hand. It instantly burst into flames and disintegrated. 

I stared at what was once a note that contained my personal feelings; my jaw dropped in disbelief. 

Leo rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Ouch. Sorry about that, Kai. Cool paper plane, though." 

I continued to stare at the pile of ashes. My bottom lip quivered a bit. 

"Geez, Kai. It's not that big a deal. You can just make another one." 

I dropped my head on the table, feeling utterly defeated. “I quit,” I moaned. 

"Kai," Leo said, poking me with a socket wrench. "You're freaking me out… more so than usual."


End file.
